We’ve been inundated with PlayStation 4 rumours recently with the big announcement expected on the 20th of February, but what about the poor Xbox? We haven’t heard much about it at all.

Well that may have been because the news itself doesn’t look good and the longer they could keep this under wraps the better.

According to a posting on edge-online the next Xbox is going to have some great features like a 50Gb Blu-Ray player, a vastly improved Kinect system and fully downloadable titles.

You will still be able to buy games at retail but there is a kicker; all games will ship with a once off activation code and you will need a constant online connection to play any games on the console.

So with one ill-timed blow Microsoft is planning on killing the second hand gaming market and forcing anyone without a stable internet connection of their platform. If this rumour is to be true and the related rumour of Sony also blocking second hand games then we are in for an exceptionally disappointing next generation of consoles.

Even with the improved state of our Internet in South Africa there is no chance we could rely on a permanent online connection for consoles and with games now breaking the R700 mark most of us can’t afford to continue gaming without help from the second hand market.

I’m entirely convinced these rumours are false, but if they are true I will be moving over to the PC as my main platform. We’ve asked for official comment from Microsoft SA, and this is what they told us:

“We do not comment on rumors or speculation,” says Xbox SA PR chap – Graeme Selvan. “We are always thinking about what is next for our platform, but we don’t have anything further to share at this time.”